title: Weight references for burned human skeletal remains from Portuguese samples.
abstract: Weight is often one of the few recoverable data when analyzing human cremains but references are still rare, especially for European populations. Mean weights for skeletal remains were thus documented for Portuguese modern cremations of both recently deceased individuals and dry skeletons, and the effect of age, sex, and the intensity of combustion was investigated using both multivariate and univariate statistics. The cremains from fresh cadavers were significantly heavier than the ones from dry skeletons regardless of sex and age cohort (p < 0.001 to p = 0.003). As expected, males were heavier than females and age had a powerful effect in female skeletal weight. The effect of the intensity of combustion in cremains weight was unclear. These weight references may, in some cases, help estimating the minimum number of individuals, the completeness of the skeletal assemblage, and the sex of an unknown individual.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Anthropology and Health (CIAS), Universidade de Coimbra, Rua do Arco da Traição, Coimbra, 3000-056, Portugal.|Forensic Sciences Centre (CENCIFOR), Largo da Sé Nova, Coimbra, 3000-213, Portugal.|Laboratório de Arqueociências, Direção-Geral do Património Cultural and LARC/CIBIO/InBIO, Rua da Bica do Marquês 2, Lisboa, 1300-087, Portugal.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: Forensic Sciences Centre (CENCIFOR), Largo da Sé Nova, Coimbra, 3000-213, Portugal.
authors.forename: Eugénia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cunha
authors.affiliation: School of Science & Engineering, Teesside University, Borough Road, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BA, U.K.
authors.forename: Tim J U
authors.initials: TJU
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000473:pathology*; D002056:Burns / Q000473:pathology*; D055700:Cremation; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014894:Weights and Measures; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: burned bones; cremation; forensic anthropology; forensic science; heat-induced changes; skeletal weights